Trump Pardons Navy Fighter Ace

all right it's been a morning of last events for the president and the first lady they took their final stroll across the white house south lawn and boarded marine one for that short flight from the white house to joint base andrews once they got there they addressed a small contingent of trump supporters including family members and the president made a comment we will be back in some form not sure what that means exactly and he wished the nation good luck he and the first lady boarded air force one they're airborne as i'm recording this headed for mar-a-lago for the final flight he will relinquish the presidency at 11 59 east coast time and the biden administration will begin now on his way out the door as the pundits anticipated he would and there was some fear associated with to what degree he would exercise his pardon power president trump pardoned 73 individuals and he commuted the sentences of another 70 individuals now some were afraid that concern that he would use his pardon power to pardon family members and potentially himself preemptively in the event that sdny and other agencies come after him once he's no longer president and shielded from being charged with certain crimes so he didn't do that but he did pardon some folks that people anticipate he would particularly the most visible name on the list is that of stephen bannon so let me read you the white house press release on the pardon of stephen bannon president trump granted a full pardon to stephen bannon prosecutors pursued mr bannon with charges related to fraud stemming from his involvement in a political project mr bannon has been an important leader in the conservative movement and is known for his political acumen so that is kind of generous wording to put it mildly remember stephen bannon used a charity to attempt to build the wall which is misuse of donations now he was never officially charged so this pardon is a preemptive pardon so that now another name that jumped out at me on the list is that of randall cunningham so duke cunningham was a vietnam-era fighter pilot he is the last u.s navy ace he was a legend in the fighter community during the time that i was coming up through the ranks of the f-14 community so between january and may of 1972 duke and his rio radar intercept officer remember maverick and goose goose is the rio so willie driscoll they bagged five migs in one mission they got three and for that mission they both received the navy cross now their final mission or the mission where they got to the number five which is the number of kills you need to get labeled an ace they had a swirling dog fight with a north vietnamese mig-17 and based on the prowess of this pilot they thought it could have been colonel tomb who was a legendary north vietnamese pilot it turns out that that guy never existed as they after the war looked at some of the records and different things but whoever they did fight was pretty darn good so this dogfight lasted a while they finally shot the mig down which got them to the number five in terms of kills as they were headed back to the uss constellation the aircraft carrier they were attached to they got hit by enemy fire managed to get over the water but wound up ejecting so here's a picture of duke in the ready room of vf 96 the fighting falcons that was the squadron he and willie were assigned to you can see he's wet because he just got picked up by the search and rescue helicopter out of the water and he's recounting the flight for his squadron mates you can see the expressions on their faces they're pretty excited the encounter was captured in a famous painting that has been on everything from the walls of cnos and senators to the model box of the revell model of this particular airplane which is an f4j phantom as i said they were attached to uss constellation this call sign was showtime 100. so the number on the airplane was 100 and their tactical call sign was showtime so so you can see they're in this dogfight with this mig-17 over here over vietnam so legendary here's a picture of them recounting the event to cno elmo zumwalt and secretary of the navy at the time later a senator from virginia john warner who was married to elizabeth taylor by the way so here's the duke and willie with f4 models recounting the event so duke cunningham went on to be a top gun instructor the ceo of vf126 which is the aggressor squadron was the aggressor squadron out in miramar as i said a legend he was also a quote machine one of his most famous quotes that was echoed during dog fighting training was no points for second place so duke went on to be a congressman from the california 50th district which is southern california and he was re-elected six times but in 2005 he was accused of accepting bribes and he was actually charged and convicted of accepting 2.4 million dollars in bribes and one of the bits of evidence was this note he took on his own stationery which annotates the millions of dollars worth of contracts and the thousands of dollars it would take for him to make those contracts happen for the contractors that were bribing him and this also included 140 000 for a boat that he was living on in one of the harbors in washington d.c so he was convicted of underreporting his taxable income accepting bribes tax evasion conspiracy mail fraud and wire fraud duke served eight years so he served his entire term and he was released on june 4th 2013. so he's been living in isolation since that time in arkansas reportedly so his pardon reads as follows randall duke cunningham president trump granted a conditional pardon different from bannon who got a full pardon to randall duke cunningham who was released from prison in 2013. former speaker of the house newt gingrich strongly supports this pardon there's an endorsement mr cunningham a former california congressman was sentenced to over eight years imprisonment for accepting bribes while he held public office during his time in prison mr cunningham tutored other inmates to help them achieve their ged mr cunningham is a combat veteran an ace fighter pilot and a member of the military order of purple hearts although combat disabled he continues to serve his community by volunteering with a local fire department and is active in bible study so i think of duke cunningham the same way i think of pete rose which is at a personal level it's heartbreaking where he went wrong and how his legacy has been forever tainted so he had another saying that we used to talk about and repeat often in the fighter community it was if you're not cheating you're not trying which was basically a metaphor for going all the way in terms of the airplane's capabilities and exploiting your enemy's lack of capabilities so i think duke ultimately took that quote a little too literally so he has been pardoned but rest assured he walks among his former squadron mates in shame all right that'll do it for today's episode as always thank you for subscribing liking commenting and sharing i look forward to talking to you again soon

Channel: Ward Carroll

Views: 317,664

Keywords: Trump pardons, Donald Trump, Randall Duke Cunningham, fighter pilot, ace, Vietnam War, F-4 Phantom, USS Constellation, North Vietnam, MiG-17, dogfight, Joe Biden, inauguration, U.S. Navy, Top Gun, VF-96, ready room, Elmo Zumwalt, John Warner

Id: ap0TxiLMMoE

Length: 10min 54sec (654 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 20 2021